Chesco Prison Board approves study of video system for hearings

WEST CHESTER — Members of the Chester County Prison Board on Tuesday gave the county’s president judge the go-ahead to explore setting up a “point-to-point” video system in magisterial district courts for preliminary hearings.

President Judge James P. MacElree II, who noted that the county had successfully adopted having video hearings at other stages of criminal cases, said he had been approached by one magisterial district judge who cautioned him that he was experiencing space issues as more and more defendants were brought from prison to his court.

“It is a matter of safety,” MacElree told the members of the board, which oversees operations at the Chester County Prison and would have ultimate responsibility for holding a video hearing with a criminal defendant at the Pocopson facility. There is only so much room at district courts to handle defendants who are incarcerated, and some judges find they must grant continuances because they have no place to put all of them with the proper level of security.

“I am not going to tell them they have to do something that isn’t safe,” MacElree told the prison board members, indicating that he would not force the lower court judges to hold preliminary hearings with an overcrowded court.

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Although the board members peppered MacElree and Warden Edward McFadden with questions about how the process would work, the judge said there were legal as well as procedural obstacles that would have to be handled before a video hearing system could be adopted.

In Pennsylvania, the rules of criminal procedure dictate that defendants are entitled to an in-person preliminary hearing, at which time the prosecution is responsible for putting on evidence that established a prima facie case against those charged with a crime.

MacElree said the defendants could waive the right to be in the courtroom at the time the hearings is held, but that if they did not the court does not have the authority to pre-emptively hold a video proceeding.

He said those rules would apply unless they were rewritten by the state Supreme Court.

MacElree declined to identify which district judge had contacted him with concerns about the space issue, but his comments suggested that it was District Magisterial Judge James DeAngelo, whose court in South Coventry can sometimes hold hearings with prisoners coming from Pottstown, Norristown and Pocopson.

As it now stands, Common Pleas judges in the county have begun holding video hearings on some pre- and post-trial hearings, with defendants who are held in county or state prison. There is also one day each week in which a judge will hold “video VOPS” — that is, video hearings for probation or parole violations. The links allow the county to cut down on transportation costs; McFadden said Tuesday that the 144 such hearings that were held in February saved $14,400.

“It seems to me we could save a significant amount of money in transportation,” said MacElree.

McFadden said the video room at the prison is used every day, so he would have to reschedule some proceedings to the evening. “But it is certainly worth looking at,” he said.

MacElree said he would have to secure the agreement of both the county’s District Attorney and Public Defender’s offices to pursue the plans. First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone, who was sitting in for District Attorney Thomas Hogan, said his office would likely not face any problems, since the hearings would have to be staffed at the court regardless.

The public defenders, however, may have to duplicate staff attorneys at both the court and the prison, complicating their schedule, he said.